Ricky Romero lit up as Blue Jays lose to Red Sox, 10-4

Toronto ace gives up eight earned runs, walks six in three disastrous innings at Fenway.

Toronto Blue Jays centrefielder Rajai Davis misses a catch on a hit by Boston Red Sox's Mike Aviles that would turn into an RBI double.

By:Brendan KennedySports Reporter, Published on Wed Jun 27 2012

BOSTON—Ricky Romero’s season of soul-searching reached its lowest point here on Wednesday afternoon.

The Jays’ 27-year-old ace, who was expected to lead the team’s young rotation this year, had his worst outing of the season and among the worst of his career, giving up eight earned runs in just three innings.

He allowed six runs in the first inning alone — a disastrous, 43-pitch opening frame — as the Jays lost 10-4 in front of a sellout crowd of 37,744 at Fenway Park.

“Just a bad day,” a sombre Romero said after the game. “I was missing bad. It’s disappointing, I’m disappointed in myself.”

Wednesday marked the third-shortest outing of Romero’s career and the fifth time he has pitched fewer than four innings. The eight earned and nine total runs Romero allowed also matched career highs.

“I just didn’t do my job today. I’m embarrassed in myself more than anything. I felt like I let the team down.”

This year has been a grind for Romero, who has struggled to control both his pitches and his emotions on the mound.

He was lucky to be 8-1 heading into Wednesday’s game — having received the second-most run support of any starting pitcher in the American League — posting an ERA above 4.00 and among the highest walk rates in the AL.

He has allowed at least four runs in his last seven starts and his ERA has now ballooned to 4.94, highest on the Jays staff.

“At times I’ve been wild, at times I’ve gotten hit. Today that was a combination of both and that’s a bad combo to have. It just wasn’t my day.”

With the team’s injury-riddled rotation in such disarray, the Jays need Romero to be the stabilizing force he was last season, when he had a 2.92 ERA and made his first all-star game.

But a day after minor-league replacement Aaron Laffey pitched six shutout innings, Romero looked like he might not make it out of the first.

He threw four straight balls to start the game — one of the six free passes Romero would give up — before giving up a double, another walk and three more singles as part of a marathon first, as the Red Sox batted through the order.

Romero’s biggest problem this year, as it was Wednesday, has been his lack of command of the strike zone.

“That’s something I was good at last year and early on in the year. Right now, it seems like when I’m missing, I’m missing bad. I’m not even coming close.”

Romero issued two four-pitch and three five-pitch walks.

He got into three-ball counts with nine of the 22 batters he faced.

He had zero strikeouts and earned two strikes on just eight batters.

He got only seven swings-and-misses.

Boston’s Jon Lester, meanwhile, gave up the same number of hits as Romero — albeit over twice as many innings – but did not issue a single walk.

“(Romero) never really had a chance to pitch ahead in the count,” Jays’ manager John Farrell said after the game.

Farrell said Romero’s problems are mental, but his lack of confidence is actually affecting his mechanics and causing his inconsistency.

“It’s a matter of having conviction, trust and overall belief in the abilities and the stuff that he possesses,” Farrell said. “We’ve seen many times, when he or other guys have been in a good place mentally things flow more naturally and the consistency is there.”

Before Wednesday’s game, Farrell acknowledged this hasn’t been an easy season for Romero, but he expressed confidence in his ability to bounce back.

“These are people. They’re humans. They’re not robots. The fact is, that some guys get into a groove at given points in the year and they carry it for a while. In Ricky’s case, he has had to work for it.”

Romero, himself, said he’s going to take a day to clear his head and then spend more time in the video room, trying to root out and dissect what’s wrong with him. Answers have been tough to find thus far.

“I don’t know, I don’t know,” he repeated. “It’s just disappointing.”

Lost in the Jays’ loss was the fact that Jose Bautista’s 13th June home run broke the club record for most homers in a single month.

Jose Cruz Jr. and Carlos Delgado each hit a dozen August bombs in 2001 and 1999, respectively.

Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion both hit ballpark-clearing home runs — up and over the Green Monster’s bleacher seats and into Fenway’s parking lot.

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